Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1887-06-11

to her In such a position that her face was
shaded from the light. Bessie tapped her
naked foot against the mating with which
the little room was carpeted. 1t was an .ex-
ceedingly pretty foot.
@Well, dear old girl, it Is just this-,Frank
Muller has been here to ask me to marry
| him"
"Oh," said Jess, with a sigh Of relief, $50
that was all" She felt as though ton
weight had been lifted from her heart. She
had expected that bit of news for some time
"He wanted me to marry him, and when
said would not he behaved like-7like"-
alike Boer," suggested Jess.
alike BRUTE" went on Bessie, with en-
phasis.
$50 you don't like Frank Mullers'
@Like him! loathe the man. You don't
know how / loathe him, with his handsome,
! bad face md his cruel eyes / always loathed
him, and now I hate him, too. But / viii
tell you all about it !" and she did, with many
| feminine comments and interpretations.
jess sat quite still and waited till she had
finished.
HWell, DEAR" she said, at last, "you are not
going to marry him, and 50 there is an end Of
it. You can't detest the man more than do.
have watched him for years." she went on,
with rising anger, "and tell you that Frank
Muller is a liar and traitor. That man
would betray his own father IL he thought 1t
to his own interest to do So He hates uncle
am sure he does, although he pretends TO
be SO fond of him. am sure that he has
tried often and often to stir up the Beers
against him. Old Hans Coetzee told me that
he denounced him to the Weld Cornet as an
'uitlander' and a 'verdomde Engelsmann'
about two years before the annexation, and
tried to get him to persuade the Landdrost to
| report him as a law breaker to the Raad;
while all the time he was pretending to be so
friendly. Then in the Sikukuni war it was
Frank Muller who caused them to commander
uncle's two best wagons and the spans. He
gave none himself, nothing but q couple
Of bags of meal He is O wicked fellow,
Bessie, and dangerous fellow; but he has
more brains and more power about him than
any man In the Transvaal, and you will have
to be very careful, or he will do US all q bad
turn"
aAhln said Bessie; swell, he can't do much
now that the country Is English"
II am not so sure OF that. am not 80
sure that the country Is going to stop
English. You laugh at me for reading the
home papers, but see things there that
make me doubtful The other people are In
power now in England, and one does not
know what they may do; you heard what
uncle said tonight. They might give us up
| 10 the Beers. You must remember that we
Tar away people are only the counters with
which they play their game"
aNonsense, Jess, said Bessie Indignantly.
| aEnglishmen are not like that. When they
say thing they stick to it.
"They used to, you mean" answered Jess
| with shrug, and got up from her chair to &C
| to bed
Bessie began to fidget her white feet over
one another.
"Stop bit, Jess DEAR" she said. II want tc
| speak to you about something else"
| Jess sat, or rather dropped, back into her
| chair, and her pale face turned paler than
| ever, but Bessie blushed rosy red and hest
| tated.
| at is about Capt Mel, )" she said at length.
@Oh," answered Jess with little laugh, and
her voice sounded strange and cold in her
| own ears "Has he been following Frank
Muller's example and proposing to you, toof'
"No-o," said Bessie, ''but"-and here she
rose, and, sitting on a stool by her elder sis
ter's chair, rested her forehead against her
knee-''but love him and 1 believe that he
loves me. This morning he told me that
was the prettiest woman he had seen at home
or abroad, and the sweetest, too; and do you
know" she said, looking up and giving q
happy little laugh, 81 think he meant it, too. "
care you joking, Bessie, or are you really
| In earnesati"
ain earnestl ah, but that am, and am
not ashamed to say IL. l fell in love with
John Mel when he killed that cock ostrich.
He looked so strong and savage as he fought
with it 1t is a fine thing to see man put
out all his strength. And then he is such a
gentleman!--so different from the men we
see round here. Oh, yes, I fell in love with
him at once, and have got deeper and
deeper in love with him ever since. and If he
does not marry me think that it will break
my heart. There, that's the truth, jess
DEAR" and she dropped her golden head on to
her sisters knees, and she began to cry,
softly, at the thought
And the sister sat there on the chair, her
hand hanging idly by her side, her white
face set and impassive as that of an Egyptian
sphinx, and the large eyes gazing far away
through the window, against which the rain
was beating-far away out into the night
and the storm She heard the surging Of the
storm, she heard her sisters weeping, her
| eyes perceived the dark square Of the window
through which they appeared to look she could
feel Bessie's head upon her knees-yes, she
could see and hear and feel, and yet IL seemed
to her that abe was dead The lightning had
fallen ON her soul Is it fell on the pillar OF
v~A GsS%